


The Kick

by Estelle



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Police, Crime Fighting, Established Relationship, M/M, nightclubs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 07:32:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17741594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estelle/pseuds/Estelle
Summary: Arthur is the owner of the most exclusive nightclub in town. Eames is the cop investigation the death related to the mysterious new drug "The Kick".





	The Kick

**Author's Note:**

  * For [QueenThayet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenThayet/gifts).



> For Eames Stupid Cupid 2019, for the prompt "kick; established". I took "established" to mean "established relationship". And as for "kick", I'm sure this isn't what you had in mind with the prompt, but I hope you like it. Happy Valentine's Day!

Eames waves to Yusuf, who is polishing glasses, as he passes the bar. “Regretter Rien” is the most exclusive nightclub in town, with a very chic 1920s flair, but at this time of the day, it is still mostly empty. Only two regulars are sitting in the tasteful lounge chairs, and the small dance floor in front of the stage where Mal will later perform beautiful chansons is unoccupied.  
Eames makes his way upstairs, where Arthur, the owner, has his offices.  
“Hello darling”, he greets when he steps in, and Arthur looks up from his laptop, smiling slightly when he sees him.  
“Eames, what can I do for you?”  
“Do I need a reason to visit my favourite person in the entire city?”, Eames replies mock-hurt, and Arthur rolls his eyes, but is very obviously fighting down a grin.  
Slowly, he gets up from behind his desk and comes to stand in front of Eames.  
“So there’s no reason at all?”  
Eames lightly places his hands on Arthur’s hips. “Seeing you isn’t reason enough?”  
“Maybe”, Arthur concedes, before kissing him softly. “You don’t normally visit me at work, though”, he says then, and Eames sighs.  
“Saito made me. We still don’t have a lead on the Kick case”, he confesses. A new drug labelled “The Kick” had arrived on the market a few weeks ago, and so far, there had been two deaths related to it. Needless to say that they were working overtime to find out where it came from and how to stop them.  
Arthur frowns. “And you think you’ll find something here? You know I run a clean establishment.”  
“I know, but...” Eames sighs and trails off.  
Frowning harder, Arthur steps back and crosses his arms. “You think I’d be dating a cop if I didn’t?”  
“What, no!” Eames seems surprised, but before he can get any further, Ariadne, Arthur’s assistant, sticks her head through the door.  
“Arthur, you should come downstairs. Now!” She sounds very urgent, and a little scared, and Arthur is immediately feeling even worse. “Oh, and Eames, you should probably come too”, she continues, and both men nod.  
They follow her to the downstairs men’s room, where Cobb, the head of security, is guarding the door with a serious expression on his face.  
He steps aside and they find a man slumped against the wall next to the sink, clearly not breathing anymore.  
“Fuck.” Arthur runs his hands over his face and through his hair, then turns to Cobb. “The Kick?”  
Cobb nods uneasily. “It would seem like it.”  
“And how did he get it in here? Why did you not check? We have security for a reason, you know?” He is speaking quietly, but everyone can see the fury in his eyes, and Ariadne thinks that this is a lot scarier than if he were shouting.  
Cobbs shrugs. “He’s a regular, and I didn’t think...”  
“You’re not paid to think. Fuck.” He turns to Eames then, looking just a little helpless, and Eames immediately takes his hand.  
“I know you had nothing to with this”, he reassures, and a bit of tension seeps out of Arthur.  
“I still need to investigate though”, he says then, and Arthur sighs. “I know. Fuck, this will ruin me.”  
“Not necessarily. We can keep this quiet. You can say that a pipe burst or something, and close the club for water damage, and I’ll handle this discreetly”, Eames proposes, trying to think of ways to make his boyfriend feel better.  
Arthur smiles slightly, leaning his head against Eames’ shoulder for a moment. “Thank you.”

A while later, he is back in his office, but obviously can’t concentrate on anything. The tea Ariadne had brought him has long gone cold, because he couldn’t stop stirring it, and he is glad when Eames comes into his office.  
“Anything?”, he asks, and his boyfriend sighs.  
“Not really. We found this though. Any idea what it might mean?”  
He places a business card on Arthur’s desk and he looks at it. It’s completely black, with no text and just a golden logo that is a star half hidden behind a cloud.  
For a moment, he can’t place it, but then it clicks. “Nash.”  
Eames blinks. “What?”  
“This is the logo of Dreamshare, Nash’s club. We used to run it together, until Nash decided that we could make more money through illegal means, and I didn’t agree. I left and I don’t think he’s ever gotten over me being more successful”, Arthur explains, and Eames hums.  
“So he has motive, more or less. You think he sent that guy here with the drugs? Seems a bit careless to leave his business card though.” Eames sounds unconvinced and Arthur shrugs.  
“Nash was never one for subtleties. He also might very well be goading me. I don’t think he knows that you can be _friendly_ with the cops.” He winks at Eames, who laughs despite the situation.  
“Just one cop, I hope.”  
“Of course.” Arthur swiftly gets up and pulls Eames close to kiss him. “Thank you for believing me.”  
“Always.” Eames kisses him again, no doubt in his mind that Arthur has nothing to do with the dead body in his club’s bathroom.  
“So I should investigate this Nash guy?”, he says a while later, and Arthur leans his forehead against his.  
“Yeah, probably. Be careful though. Like I said, he doesn’t believe in keeping things legal.”  
“Seems like he should be investigated either way.” Eames makes no move to pull away though, instead starting to lightly stroke Arthur’s sides.  
“But not right now?”, Arthur questions, grinning, and Eames matches his smile.  
“I think I got a bit of time. I did come here to see you after all.”  
“Good.” Arthur kisses him quickly. “Go lock the door.”

The next day, Arthur is in his office working again, when Ariadne come in and hands him an envelope. “This just came for you.”  
The note inside it reads “If you want to see your cop friend alive, better come to Dreamshare as fast as you can.” and Arthur’s heart seizes painfully in his chest. If anything happens to Eames… He shakes his head. Eames is smarter than Nash, and perfectly capable of handling the situation, he reminds himself and hopes that even Nash isn’t stupid enough to outright kill a cop.  
And because he is not an idiot, he doesn’t immediately go to Nash’s club, but calls Robert, Eames’ partner, to make sure he knows what’s going on, because of course it is just like Eames to try to investigate this on his own.  
Half an hour later, Robert has him wired up and ready to meet Nash, him and a few other cops staying close to the club for backup.  
So he strides into “Dreamshare” and tries his best not to roll his eyes at the cliché scene he is met with.  
Eames is on his knees in the middle of the room, his hands tied behind his back, while Nash stands over him with a gun and two guards to either side.  
“Took you long enough”, Nash sneers, and Arthur does roll his eyes now.  
“Just got your message. Maybe check the reliability of your couriers”, he replies curtly, trying not to let on how nervous it makes him to see Eames like that. “So what do you want?”  
“Your club”, Nash replies immediately.  
Arthur raises his eyebrows. “Okay, let me get this straight. First, you get someone to smuggle drugs into my club to ruin me, and when that fails, you kidnap my boyfriend?”  
“Yes, exactly! You should have been ruined! Why weren’t you ruined when they found the body? There was nothing! It should have been all over the news and you would have found my card and known that I bested you! Instead I get _this guy_ ” - he nudges Eames with the gun, and Arthur uses all his willpower to not flinch - “questioning me! So you see, I had no other choice!” Nash actually sounds excited about his plan, and Arthur is quite relieved that he has been stupid enough to lay it all out like that. He’s sure that Robert has heard enough to arrest him now, if there wasn’t the problem of the gun still pointed at Eames’ head.  
“Why don’t you let him go, and we go to your office to sign some papers to transfer ownership of my club?”, he proposes and Nash laughs.  
“Do you think I’m stupid?”  
He almost – almost – says yes, and only manages to stop himself because Eames is still in danger.  
“You got a gun and two guards, you can shoot me if I don’t do what you want, and then my club is ruined anyway”, he tries to reason, only focused on getting Eames out of here.  
“Darling, no!”, Eames gasps, the first thing he has said since Arthur walked in.  
“Shut up!”, Nash snaps. “As long as I can ruin Arthur, it’s perfect.” He lowers his gun and Arthur can hardly believe how stupid he is.  
Before anyone can react, Eames is on his feet and has kicked the gun out of Nash’s hand. Arthur would take the time to admire how much skills that takes to do with his hands still tied behind his back, but he is occupied focusing on the guards. They are just drawing their own guns – and what a stupid oversight on their part to not have them ready – when Arthur takes his own out from where it’s hidden in his waistband and swiftly shoots both of them in the legs.  
Just then, Robert and the rest of the policemen storm in to make their arrests.   
While they are busy with that, Arthur hurries over to Eames and frees him from the ties.  
“Darling, that was bloody amazing! Where did you learn to shoot like that?”, is the first thing he asks, and Arthur huffs a laugh, taking Eames wrists in his hands to massage them to get the blood flowing again.  
“Just because I don’t deal in illegal operations, doesn’t mean that I don’t know how to defend myself. Speaking of which, that kick was amazing!”, he says then, and Eames grins.  
“Thanks.”  
“It was really stupid too! What if they guards had shot you?”, he continues.  
Eames shrugs. “I was counting on you to help me. I just couldn’t let you be alone with them! Why would you come here anyway?” He sounds agitated, and Arthur sighs.  
“As if I would sit by when you’re in danger! At least I called Robert!”  
At that, Eames looks down. “Yeah, sorry, that was a bit stupid. I thought I could handle it.”  
“Yeah, I noticed. Anyway, for now, I’m just glad you’re okay. I was really worried”, Arthur confesses quietly, before kissing Eames fiercely.

Later that night, after all the paperwork has been dealt with, the patrons of “Regretter Rien” are treated with the rare sight of the owner out on the dance floor, slowly swaying in the arms of his boyfriend.


End file.
